A third-party organization brought in by the Southern Baptist Convention to investigate allegations of systemic sexual abuse within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination found its leaders ignored and even “vilified” the victims, and knew more about the perpetrators than they admitted. The abuses occurred over a two-decade period, accentuating the conference’s longtime image problem as an organization whose conservative leadership remains mired in outdated racial and gender attitudes.
Media reporting in recent years has documented hundreds of cases of alleged abuse by Baptist preachers and others in the convention. The organization might well have mimicked the Catholic church’s initial response of circling the wagons and stonewalling, if not for pressure by reformers within the organization. At a national Southern Baptist gathering last year, thousands of delegates demanded an independent probe. The organization ultimately acquiesced, bringing in the independent firm Guidepost Solutions.
Its lengthy report, released Sunday, confirms some of the worst of the allegations and brings new ones to light. The report says abuse survivors, including children and adult women, were met, “time and again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility” from convention leaders. Three former presidents of the convention were identified as having protected abusers, and one allegedly committed sexual assault.
